On the 1st of July, Hillsong released a media statement about A Current Affair and Tanya Levin “harassing minors in an unethical manner” at Hillsong Conference 2015.

We published his media statement in an article on the 2nd of July. This is what it said then:

Statement from Hillsong Church re: A Current Affair story

1st July, 2015

We understand A Current Affair has been promoting a story supposedly about the Hillsong Conference.

They have also been outside our conference today harassing minors in an unethical manner.

Furthermore they have engaged in a cheap publicity stunt by bringing a so called “Hillsong insider” who has not been to our church for 20 years, to our conference today.

We are advised that her behaviour outside the venue resulted in her being apprehended by police at the request of the arena’s security staff (not Hillsong staff).

The behaviour of A Current Affair is reprehensible and this pending story will be no more than a continuation of their anti-Christian agenda and hate.

This story will be entirely fabricated and contain no truth whatsoever as do all of their stories about our church.

We note that as usual the program has not contacted us for comment.

We urge Christians and all who stand for truth in reporting to refuse to even watch or record this tabloid trash, and not give them the reward of ratings, because in the end this is no more than a grab for ratings.

Source: Statement from Hillsong Church re: A Current Affair story, Hillsong, http://hillsong.com/media/statement-from-hillsong-church-re-a-current-affair-story/, Published 01/07/2015. (Accessed 02/07/2015.) (Emphasis added.) [SOURCE]

Somewhere between the publication of that media statement in July and mid October, Brian Houston tampered with his media statement.

The information that Brian Houston tampered with was this sentence:

“We are advised that her behaviour outside the venue resulted in her being apprehended by police at the request of the arena’s security staff (not Hillsong staff).”

It now reads:

“We are advised that her behaviour outside the venue resulted in her being apprehended by police.”

The updated media statement  provided no additional information suggesting that the media statement was edited or tampered with.

No apology. No update. Nothing.

There is nothing wrong saying that a change has been made to a publication. However, Houston felt the need to change his media statement that was presented to the public.

 

Why did he do this? Why did he not release the date when he changed the media statement? By removing this detail, Houston wants to remove the idea of Hillsong or arena staff being involved in the removal by police of Tanya Levin. What he wants to do is focus on the police doing the removal and not draw attention to Hillsong and Arena staff involvement.

However, having removed this information, one has to wonder if Hillsong staff were intrinsically involved in contacting police in the removal of Tanya Levin. (Clearly it was important for Brian Houston to remove it. And how would Brian Houston know?)

The Hillsong media statement now says,